Notes for the 08-16-04 Harmony in My Head Show.

Heres the songs from tonight. I hope you liked the show. Next week I have some really cool stuff so turn on your tape recorders for that one. Thanks for listening. Until next week. Henry

The Damned  New Rose: From the first Damned album, Damned Damned Damned. This is a classic album and it should be in every house. Theres not much I can tell you about this band that couldnt be better explained by one of the bands fan websites. I have been listening to this band since 11th grade I think.

The Buzzcocks - Fast Cars: From the classic first Buzzcocks album Another Music in a Different Kitchen. Ian MacKaye gave me my copy for my 17th or 18th birthday. I am still listening to this perfect album. This album, the Spiral Scratch EP and the Singles Going Steady album, a comp. of all the bands early singles is musical perfection.

The Ruts  Jah Wars: From The Crack, a record you should have at least right now. Its been re-released along with an album singles, radio sessions and live cuts called Grin and Bear It, released after the death of the bands singer, Malcolm Owen, who passed away from heroin overdose in 1980 at the age of 26. There are no bad Ruts songs and I listen to them at least once a week. More info can be had at: http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/ruts.htm. This was a block of classics, folks, as good as it gets.

Duke Ellington  Pretty and the Wolf: From one of my favorite Ellington albums, Hot Summer Dance. The world of Ellington is so huge that no matter how much time you spend with his recordings, you can still find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer recorded output. I dont know where to steer you really. I have my favorite albums like The Far Eat Suite, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, Blues in Orbit, The Great Paris Concert, but then theres all that early stuff when he had those killer trumpet players like Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams. Duke is a world of music unto his own and hes worth checking out. Naturally, hes a Washington DC boy. He was born at the wrong time, he could have been on Dischord.

Miriam Makeba  Ha Po Zamani: Another great track from her Pata Pata album. Finally this record is on CD and off the endangered list. Shes so cool. I think shes still around, I used to see listings for her live gigs in France. I just checked on Amazon, CD in print. Great stuff. 

Louis Jordan  Pettin and Pokin: I have never seen this song on any of the best-ofs. I got it from the Bear Family box set of Jordans Decca recordings. I guess the song isnt one of his hits. It sure is funny. I read somewhere that Miles didnt like him because he thought he was an uncle tom. Come on Miles, lighten up! Louis Jordan was great.

The Fall  Clasp Hands: The other night I went to the Fall website to see if there was anything new to know about the Fall. There was the new John Peel session and one could listen to it by double clicking on a thing at the end of the notice. I did and started listening to the songs. I was unable to drag the songs off as files and this pissed me off. I utilized my caveman sense of technology and went out of my laptop into my tape deck and made a good high saturation dub of the songs, then bounced them onto DAT and then onto CDR and brought them in. So, heres a new Fall song to check out, pretty cool, right? If you want to check out the Fall site, its here: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Buzzkunst  Til the Stars in His Eyes Are Dead: I dont know anyone who bought this record. Buzzkunst pairs Steve Shelley and Howard Devoto together for the first time since they were in the Buzzcocks together in 1977. I think its a cool record. I went to Amazon and looked it up and saw that there were mixed reviews. Theres no accounting for taste.

The Barber  Inky Minky Dinky Doo: All I know about this is Chris Haskett gave me this on cassette in 1986 and told me was a song written by a barber in Leeds UK who went to a local studio and told him he wanted to make a song and they put it together for him and so there you have it, one of the greatest love songs ever.

Jimi Hendrix  Freedom: One of my favorite late period Hendrix tracks. I think Hendrix was about to turn a great corner in his playing when he died. Like Coltrane, the next chapter was going to be great and thankfully theres a few glimpses with these late recordings. Even though Hendrix was bumming on where his career was at and in his lyrics, theres a lot of stuff about flying away, riding away, submerging and being from another planet altogether, he was still making supreme music and if you check out the bootleg CDs that are floating around, you will hear that his playing is beyond amazing. What a loss. This is one bad-ass song.

J Mascis and the Fog  Freedom: I guess you can call me a fan as theres no J Mascis album I dont like. I like all the Dinosaur Jr. stuff and his new band, The Fog are great as well. This song is taken from the J Mascis and the Fog album called Free so Free. Easy to find and worth it if you like this song.

Bob Dylan  Ballad of a Thin Man: Crushing lyric. I remember this song from when my mother used to play it when I was a little boy. Its on Highway 61 Revisited. Highway, Bringing it All Back Home and Blonde on Blonde, he put out all three records in no time. Its always amazing to me how he could have that kind of output and have the quality be so high. His last album Love and Theft was great.

Last Poets  Related to What?: This is from the This is Madness album. Its my favorite Last Poets record. I dont know much about them but theres a website that has some info and its a kinda funny read. I just got the new remastered version of this CD, it sounds great.
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/LASTPOETS/last_poets0.html#lastpoetsbiograpy

Charlie Lincoln aka Charlie Hicks  Jealous Hearted Blues: Brother of the great Barbeque Bob. They had similar styles but I always thought that the not-as-jovial Charlie was more interesting because there always seems to be some malice behind his voice. Kinda like the way Sonny Liston used to look. http://www.io.com/~tbone1/blues/ECblz/chalin.html

Tel Aviv  I Am Particular: I am such a fan of the Teenbeat label. I have two Tel Aviv CDs, 193 and The Shape of Fiction. I like them both a lot. More info to be found at: http://www.teenbeatrecords.com/. I play a lot of stuff from the Teenbeat label on the show. I think they do a great job, the layout and design of the CDs and LPs are really cool and I like what they are doing and always look forward to what Mark Robinson is going to do next with the label. 

Say Again  Dome: From Dome 1. Bruce Gilbert, Graham Lewis from Wire were doing projects all through the 80s up to now. They made four Dome albums, re-released on two CDs. I like all of them but the first one is the one I play the most. I played this one at the office awhile ago and told Heidi that I wanted to make a record like this and she wouldnt let me hear the end of it. This is one of those bands that you either really get to or not. I thought I would play this to see if anyone thought it was cool. I think the CDs, which were released on Mute, are out of print but theyre pretty easy to find.

Sweet Jane  Lou Reed: This version of Sweet Jane is from Rock and Roll Animal. It has a long instrumental intro that we bypassed and faded up into as it turns into the classic riff. I seem to like the two Lou records that critic bitches like Robert Christgau slaughtered like Take No Prisoners and Street Hassle. Love those records. Ever check them out? Lou is the man!

My Better Half  One Last Wish: I was lucky enough to see OLWs first show. It was in Washington DC in 1986. Great show! I have it on tape. I think they only played six shows total. The CD that this song came off of was a tape sitting around for years. I made a CDR of it when I first got my CDR maker in 1997 and played it all the time and always bugged band members Eddie Machetey and Guy Picciotto whenever I saw them that they have to release this awesome bands recorded output. Finally it happened and the CD called 1986 was released on Dischord. Brendan, Guy, Eddie, Mike Hampton, what a line-up. I think its cool that all these people changed configurations and made bands and released records, it makes the whole early to mid Dischord stuff really interesting to trace. http://www.dischord.com/bands/onelastwish.shtml

Pigs in Zen  Janes Addiction: From my favorite Jane's bootleg CD. When they were getting the tracks together for the live CD that I did the liner notes for, I asked them to consider using this track and apparently they thought about but in the end it didnt make the cut. I dont see what the problem is, the lead is Navarro godhead and Perrys rap in the middle is great. Now, THAT was a live band. Those of you who were there know what I mean. Those who missed it, you missed one of the greatest live bands of all time.

Tutti Frutti  The Jesters: I like the hyper backbeat they put behind their version of this song. I figure you have heard the original enough times. This is from one of my many Doo Wop CD comps. from the Winely Records label on Relix. I went to Amazon and it looks like its out of print. The great engineer Phil Klum who masters most of the stuff on my label was for a time, mastering the Relix Doo Wop comps and was under the impression that they were made in runs of 1000. Whenever I saw a new one in the Doo Wop section at Tower, I would pick it up and never was I let down. I am glad I did as I dont see them in the shops anymore. Thats right, now you see what a truly boring motherfucker I am.

The Viletones  Screamin Fist: Was this the first Viletones single? I think so. The Bad Brains, in their early shows used to cover this with bass player Darrell singing. The Viletones were from Canada and theres a great comp. CD of their singles and all the stuff from the sessions called A Taste of Honey. Its hard to find now. Cool stuff.

Roky Erickson  I Have Always Been Here Before: One of the greatest lyrics of all time. Theres not one Roky song, post Thirteenth Floor Elevators that I dont like. This is one a ton of great songs the mighty Rok has given us. I almost went with the Interpreter or a killer live version of I Walked with a Zombie for the show tonight. We could have a good Roky show one of these nights. Theres enough good music of his to do it no problem. I played this from the gremlins Have Pictures CD comp. that has less surface noise than the other comp. that has this song.

The Cramps  Garbage Man: I remember when the first Cramps album Songs the Lord Taught Us was about to come out. Talk about much anticipated! I walked into the record store near my job and bought it day of release and was broken hearted when it skipped. I took it back and got another and it skipped in the same place. A bad run of a great, GREAT record. We all bought this one and no one I know was disappointed. We used to see these guys (and gal) play in small clubs in DC and still they are some of the best shows I have ever seen. Ians band the Teen Idles opened up for them once when they played the Ontario Theater. Same place we all saw the Clash and the Buzzcocks. Garbage Man kills.

Dr. Alimantado  Mash It Up: Ian turned me onto the label Blood and Fire. They do great reggae and dub CDs. If I see the blood and Fire logo on the back of the CD, I just get it. I have never been let down either. This is from the If Deejay Was Your Trade
comp. CD.



Thanks for listening. 
